


Getting an M.B.A. Online (Or How Sonny Carisi Learned to Appreciate the Cello)

by blown_transistor



Series: Rafael, Jessica, Sonny, and Miranda Go Back to School [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:24:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7532656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blown_transistor/pseuds/blown_transistor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in the same universe as "Law School Redux", "Getting an M.B.A. Online" documents how Sonny Carisi realizes he is fond of the cello...and realizes that it's a small world after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I like making playlists for my stories. Here's the one for this story: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgjKHy4ofeABYAjCwUL3DjcxGRw8Ergr .
> 
> I'm at a point in my Barba story where writers' block combined with the way they left the season 17 finale is hampering my ability to write. So...have this instead.

Tapping his fingers against the green metal railing at the top of the stairs leading up from the 6 train at the 77th Street stop, Sonny Carisi took a deep breath before walking down Lexington Avenue toward East 74th street. He didn’t know why he was nervous, really. Bella told him a friend of hers needed a lawyer and suggested that he go and talk to her. His first legal consultation after passing the Bar a week ago. She’d punched his arm and hinted that her friend was pretty cute, too. Motherhood had clearly upped her drive to get him started on a family of his own. 

He turned when he got to East 74th street and crossed over to the building at the corner with Lexington. Entering the glass door between the entrances to the closed candy store and the dry cleaners as instructed, he quickly climbed the stairs and stopped outside of the glass door of The Stitch Witch.  _ So this is where Bella’s been spendin’ so much time _ . 

Just as he raised his hand to knock on the door (since the store was closed), he stopped. The soothing strains of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” faded into the fast-paced notes of something else entirely that Sonny couldn’t place. The singer sounded a bit like Freddie Mercury… As he stood there trying to place the music, a figure zoomed across the tiled floor a la Tom Cruise in  _ Risky Business _ holding a colorful thing of yarn like a microphone.

“Heal me with your holy touch, oh baby. Heal with me your holy, kick down the door and hold me. Heal me with your holy touch…” the woman inside sang, clearly off key. 

The woman was blonde and appeared to be in her late twenties, just as Bella described Miranda Worthington. 

When she resumed cranking on the possible torture device attached to the table, he finally knocked on the glass. Sonny grinned when she gasped in surprise. 

“Come in!” she called, motioning for him to open the glass door after smoothing her tee shirt. Turning to face him, she smiled. “Ah! You must be Bella’s brother. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Good things, I hope.” He shook her hand firmly, unable to avoid the vintage, flowery smell of her perfume. 

“Mostly. I’ve got a brother, too. We commiserate.” She motioned for him to sit on the wicker sofa in the center of the room. “Miranda. Miranda Worthington.”

“Dominick Carisi, Junior. Call me Sonny. Everyone does.” He looked around the store, taking in all the brightly colored yarns hanging from the wall or in various cubby-hole shelves. 

“Can I get you anything to drink, Sonny?” She headed toward the back of the store. “I’ve got some old coffee, some water, a few cans of various sodas, some wine…”

His head snapped in the direction of the voice when a loud bark echoed from across the room. “I-I forgot to eat lunch, so some water’d be nice.” Sonny’s smile widened until it pretty much touched both of his ears at the distinct sound of dog toenails clicking along the tile floor. “Hey big guy!” he exclaimed when a stocky, white Bull Terrier rounded the corner and jumped up onto the sofa beside him. He laughed at the sight of the dog’s tail wagging faster than a ceiling fan on high and began petting the excited pup.

“William!” Miranda called, snapping her fingers. “You know better.” She handed a bottle of water to her guest and sat in the matching chair across from the sofa. “Good boy,” she praised when the dog curled up next to Sonny. 

“William?” he asked with a hand absentmindedly patting his new friend’s chest. 

“He’s registered with the A.K.C. as ‘William the Conqueror’ after General Patton’s dog.” Catching Sonny’s raised eyebrow out of the corner of her eye, she shrugged. “History minor. Only hope I don’t go out because a Willy’s Jeep turned over.”

“Or slap a soldier.” 

“I slapped a sailor once. In my defense, I was walking down a public sidewalk to the bodega during Fleet Week. Trust me, Detective, he deserved it. Or is it Counselor now?”

“It’s Detective for now still. But I’m off the clock.” Setting the bottle of water down on the coffee table full of knitting magazines, he leaned forward in his seat. “So Bella said you need a lawyer?”

“A civil one, yes,” she reassured. “The attorney my aunt’s been using for fifteen years retired and moved to South Carolina to be closer to his grandkids. If Bella indicated this was something serious to get you up here, I’m sorry. She’s been trying to convince me to meet you ever since she was about six months along.”

“It’s not just you. She’s been trying to set both our only single sister and I up with people.” He shrugged. “Motherhood has made her want everyone else around her to become parents.”

“I picked up on that.”  She stood up and grabbed her keyring. “Why don’t we get dinner down the street and figure out why your sister wants us to meet?” When he looked between her and the dog, she grabbed the remote for the stereo and pushed the power button. “I’m buying.”

“You must sell a lot of yarn to afford the rent for this place,” he observed as she locked the door behind her. 

Dropping her keys into her purse, she made a show of scratching the side of her neck. “I own the store with my aunt. We know the people that own the building. Got me a good deal on my apartment two floors above the store. So…”

“Nice,” he nodded, clearly impressed. 

She shrugged. “While ‘friends in low places’ can get you drunk, the opposite is true for business sense. If you’re looking for an office space, I can get you a discount.”

“Thanks, but no.” He held a hand up, cringing when she she beat him to the restaurant door and holding it open for him to walk in front of her. 

“Staying with the N.Y.P.D. for now?” she inquired as the cozied up to the bar.  When the bartender greeted her by name, she turned back to Carisi. 

“I’ve got time. And options. Feelin’ ‘em out, y’know?”

“No, I get it. I really do.”

“Whatcha havin’ tonight, Miranda?” the bartender asked, propping his elbow up on the bar and resting his chin in his hand. 

“If you still have that Dogfish Head 90 Minute I.P.A., I’ll take one of those.” She paused, gesturing toward Carisi. “And this guy’s on my tab tonight, Julian.”

“A-A Bud Light, I guess.”

“Belay that.” She raised an eyebrow. “You can do better than that. I’m buying. What’s your poison?” 

“Rebel IPA, please?”

“Good choice. So...law school at night, huh?”

Sonny nodded, gratefully accepting the pint glass from the bartender. “Between work and school…”

“It was much more difficult than working through college the first time around?”

“Yeah. How do you know?”

Miranda swirled her beer in her glass. “Working on getting my M.B.A. online.” She laughed when he smiled so widely that the corners of his eyes crinkled and the lines around his mouth threatened to meld into his crow’s feet. “I’ve got a semester and a half left.”

“Dogs, night school, and beer. I’m starting to see why Bella arranged this.”

“She didn’t mention you had a dog.”

“I  _ had _ a dog,” he lamented. “Her name was Ivy. She died two years ago, and between school and work, I haven’t really had a lot of time. I didn’t want to adopt another dog if I didn’t have time for it, ya know?”

“I do. I’m just happy I can bring mine with me. Customers love him.”  She smiled sadly. “I’m sorry about your dog. I took two days off work when the dog I grew up with passed. Perks of working for family, I guess.”

“I’d just started at Manhattan S.V.U. when I had to put her down.” He ran a finger up and down the side of his pint glass. Quickly smacking the bar between them, Sonny put on a brave face. “So...did you go to college for business the first time around?”

“I did.”

“I went to the Staten Island campus of St. John’s for Legal Studies and English. I got an education, but it was still Staten Island. Tell me stories of going to a college bar that your parents didn’t go to from time to time to seem ‘cool’.”

“I went to school in Philly. My parents never came to visit.”

“Never?”

She shrugged. “I had fun. Joined a sorority and became the underage beer pong champion...and then sorority president.”

“That’s a helluva resume.” 

Miranda held up a hand to pause him briefly. “Food. How do you feel about hot wings?”

“Bleu cheese and celery?”

“Your sister is definitely onto something here.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

 

“Thanks for dinner and drinks, Miranda. You really didn’t haveta…” Sonny began, standing in front of her home and business address some time (...and a dozen wings and three beers each between them) later.

“Of course I did. Bella made you think I was a damsel in legal distress so you’d come meet me. It was the least I could do.” 

Sonny reached into his wallet and produced one of his N.Y.P.D. business cards. “My cell’s on there in case you need advising again,” he hinted with a poorly hidden grin.

Miranda sniggered. She reached into her purse, pulled out a card...and snatched the pen out of his shirt pocket. After scribbling something on the back of the yarn store business card, she stuffed it along with his pen back into the pocket. “In case you ever need some yarn. Or a dog to pet,” she added with a shrug as an afterthought. “Thank you for walking me home safely,  _ Detective _ .”

He bit back a moan when she winked at him before letting the building door close behind her. Once she was out of sight, he grabbed the card she’d stuffed into his pocket. The front of the card was a symphony in pastels with the yarn store logo and information printed in bold type. He chuckled when he flipped the card over. In her handwriting that was as neat and preppy as a sorority banner, she’d written “My dog seems taken with you. And as luck would have it, so am I. Call me, and I might even let you pay. Miranda. 212-623-2213”. 

 

“You are far too cheery this morning, Carisi,” Amanda Rollins groaned, pushing her sunglasses on top of her head and taking a cannoli from the box in his hands. “I lose the baby weight, and you’re trying to get me to put it back on.” When the smile didn’t fade from his face, she set the pastry on a napkin on her desk. “Something’s going on.”

Fin reached over Amanda and pulled a treat out of the box for himself. “Young Blood, she’s right. What’s goin’ on with you?”

“Carisi has a girlfriend,” Amanda teased, holding up the pastel business card resting on his keyboard. “‘My dog seems taken with you. And as luck would have it, so am I’. If I was still gambling, I’d place bets on the wedding day.” She laughed when he tried to grab the card back.

He snatched the card back from her and shoved it into his pants pocket. “What?”

“I’m not leavin’ until you text this girl.” Rollins crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m serious.”

“I just saw her last night!”

“This girl works in an Etsy haven. She likes you. Apparently her dog likes you. The only question is how many kids you’re going to have!”

Picking his phone up from his desk, Sonny typed in the cell number from the card and a quick message. “Happy?” He shoved the phone into Amanda’s hand. 

“Overjoyed.” She patted his chest before settling in her desk chair. 


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, my playlist for this story is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgjKHy4ofeA-2ve7K1xM6uihF1tK3VeC The new additions are from "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Captain America: Civil War".

Sonny rolled his eyes after checking his Apple Watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. She’d offered to buy her own ticket since the yarn store didn’t close until eight, but he couldn’t let her do that, especially not on the first date. _He’d_ invited _her_. It just wasn’t polite.

But if he’d let her pay separate, he could already be in the theater with his IMAX glasses saving her a seat in the middle of the room for the best viewing angle.

She _did_ pay for their tab the night they met, but that wasn’t a date. And she insisted.

 _Yeah...and she laughed at your cheesy jokes. And smiled at you. And_ told _you she wanted you to call her. Like you were going to say no in any universe._

He was torn from his inner monologue by the sound of squealing brakes close to the curb.

“Yeah, I’m not clicking on your car next time,” Miranda grumbled after shutting the Uber door behind her. “I mention I’m running late, and that maniac starts pretending it’s damn _Grand Theft Auto_ out there.”

“Any later and we might’ve been stuck in the seats down front,” he deadpanned, putting a hand on the small of her back and kissing her on the cheek. Then he noticed her attire in comparison to his jeans and plain olive green button-down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. “Are we goin’ somewhere besides the bar across the street after this or…”

She cocked an eyebrow before looking down to examine her choice of clothing -- a white sleeveless blouse, light jeans, and navy pumps. “Do I have a string hanging out or something?”

He chuckled and offered her his arm. “I don’t think you have a single hair out of place, let alone a loose thread.”

“Good. Now let’s go intimidate some teenagers out of their seats.” Curling her manicured fingers over the crook of his elbow, she bumped her hip playfully into his. “Please tell me you brought your badge.” When he tried to explain that he couldn’t bump people from movie theater seats, she let out a peal of laughter. “I’m _kidding_ , Sonny.”

Once inside the theater, he showed the pimpled ticket-taker the QR code on his phone and collected their glasses. “So, which side?”

“Auditorium two is on the left, like the guy said…”

“Nah. Captain America or Iron Man?”

Miranda gently pulled him into a line for the concessions stand. “You didn’t notice this evening’s color palette? Red, white, and blue?” she inquired, pointing first to her deep red lipstick, then to her white blouse, and finally to her blue heels. “Besides, a billionaire that is literally caught up in a cycle of ‘oh shit I made the world worse lemme fix it’ and ‘I made it even worse than before but I can still fix it’ isn’t exactly a confidence-inspiring figure. And don’t get me started on the comics. But if you’re all Hashtag Team Iron Man, I’ll volunteer to sit away from you right now.”

His eyes darted between hers and the two couples in line ahead of them for snacks. “Oh no, you’re sitting right beside me. Cap was always my favorite as a kid. Part of the reason I became a cop, actually. I want to kiss you right now, but I don’t know if we have enough time.”

She slid her IMAX glasses onto her head like a headband. “If it’s just a kiss you’re after, you have plenty of time.”

“Alright then.” His right hand closed over hers where it held onto his left arm, and he dipped his head to kiss her. The moment was ruined the second his lips touched hers. The static electricity created by his shirt rubbing against hers made him accidentally shock her. He opened his mouth to apologize at the sight of her shocked expression...until she burst into hysterical laughter. When her laughter devolved into a snort, he lost the ability to maintain a straight face.

She tipped her movie glasses down onto her nose. “All in all, I’d say that kiss was...electrifying,” she exaggerated, ripping off the glasses and winking at him.

Sonny shook his head at his utterly ridiculous date and ushered her to the counter when it was their turn. “Alright, _CSI Miami_ , how much popcorn can you eat?”

“A lot.” When he ordered the combo with the largest popcorn and two sodas, she nudged his hip with hers. “I would have totally shared a soda with you _Lady and the Tramp_ style.”

“I didn’t want to assume that you’d want the same thing,” he explained as they walked toward the soda fountain. He felt better about his decision when she filled her paper cup with Coke as he filled his with Doctor Pepper.

“In the interest of full disclosure,” Miranda offered as a whisper, “I do like Doctor Pepper. But seeing as how this movie could potentially cause me to have feelings about superheroes, I prefer my Jack Daniels with good old fashioned Coke.” Shielding her bag from the prying eyes of theater employees, she produced what appeared outwardly to be an original Game Boy from her purse. “It’s a flask, and I’ve got enough to share.”

Once she’d put a lid on her drink, he laced his fingers together with hers.

 

Just as Miranda finished pouring a good amount of her Jack into her drink, she felt a bony elbow hit her arm.

“A little bit for your date just in case…”

She clapped one hand over his mouth and dumped the rest of her whisky into his Doctor Pepper with the other. “There isn’t any wood around here to knock on. I know they’ve got Evans for a few more movies, but I don’t need you going and jinxing it.” She took a long drink from her straw, relishing the simultaneous burn of the whiskey and the sugar of the soda.

“So when Steve does hang up the ‘Captain America’ mantle, what storyline do you think they’ll do?”

“Well, I think there are two storylines I think they could choose from. The first one is that he’s still Cap in costume only, and it’s an abandonment of what’s good and moral for what he feels is right and what he wants (for once). The second one, the one I hope they go with, is that he just says ‘fuck it’, abandons being Cap, and goes like full-on Batman-style vigilante.” When he laughed, she feigned offense and tucked her feet up underneath her. “With Sam as Alfred. You know the first time someone knocked Steve down, he’d be on the radio going ‘Do you even lift, Master Rogers?’.”

“Yeah? And where does that leave Bucky?”

Miranda elbowed him in the arm. “I haven’t thought _that far_ in advance. Jesus, dude.”

Sonny’s smile lit up his entire face. “You are such a nerd.”

“Says the guy that was about to kiss me in front of a lobby full of…”

He cut her off with a lingering kiss. “I didn’t say you being a nerd was a bad thing.”

“Put a pin in that,” she began as the lights dimmed. “As nice as that kiss was, I’m not spending this entire movie in particular making out with you.”

 

“Thanks for spendin’ the evening with me,” Sonny began with a sad smile after shifting his car into park outside of Miranda’s building. The night was about to end, and he really didn’t want it to be over. He’d spent the last five hours having a nerd-gasm, drinks, and some completely unhealthy food with a pretty girl.

“Wanna come up? There’s a dog that grabbed his Kong and started wagging his tail when I told him you were taking me out tonight…” When he began to protest, she put a finger over his mouth. “I know your job’s all about ‘grey areas’ and consent, but my intentions are honorable. I have a _very_ strict rule about not having sex on the first date. And three years ago, I was propositioned by and turned down a Tony Award-winning actor in a bar.” She shrugged. “Just so you know I’m serious.”

“So if you tell me ‘Netflix and Chill’...”

“We will fall asleep watching television. This time.” She shot a double thumbs up when he shut off the ignition to the car and opened the door. “You look like you’d be a champion snuggler, despite appearing to be a stringbean.” She reached back, grabbed his hand, and led him inside the building and up the stairs. She unlocked the door two floors above the yarn store and ushered him ahead of her.

Sonny naturally migrated toward the approaching steamroller that was her dog, dropping to his knees and cackling wildly when the animal put its front paws on his chest and “pushed” the detective to the ground. “Hey Willie!” he greeted happily scratching the excited dog’s ears.

“Do you need to go outside, baby?” Miranda asked, grabbing the leash from the hook by the door. “Let’s go.” Hooking the leash onto his collar, she motioned for her date to follow her. “If you’re still here in the morning, I’m taking you to that candy store. I swear, half of Bella’s weight gain during pregnancy came from there.”

“She ate her body weight in cannolis.”

She elbowed him gently in the ribs just as her four-legged baby indicated he was done and wanted to go back inside. “Uh huh. When it’s your other half... “ She paused and laughed as they walked. “Let’s face it, Bella will call me and tell me exactly what you said. Yarn friends for life, yo.”

_She’d say “Sonny, I told you that you and Miranda would have cute kids”._

“What?”

He shook his head and opened the main door to the building for her. “I didn’t say anything.”

“‘She’d say “Sonny, I told you that you and Miranda would have cute kids”.’?”

“Oh shit. I-I’m sorry. I…”

She opened the door to the building and entered ahead of him with Willie. “No worries. If someone had a dick and was above a four, Bella tells me I’d have cute babies with ‘em. Literally.” She shrugged as she let them back into her apartment. “She didn’t tell me you were a solid eight with your clothes on.”

“Now I want to know what a ten is. And who that actor is.”

Miranda let Willie off the leash and headed into the kitchen for beers for her and her human companion for the evening. “A ten is Chris Evans as Steve Rogers in full ‘But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it’s a price I’m willing to pay.’ mode.”

He used the bottle opener on his keychain to pop the tops off of both bottles.

“And as far as your second question? You know that a lady doesn’t tell.” She tossed her head back and forth a few times. “But this is my home. I’ve had a few drinks and don’t give a shit.” Leaning back, she popped her back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Billy Crudup. Billy motherfucking Crudup invited me back to his place, and I said no.”

“No way!” He laughed. “Mister ‘“I’m a Golden God! No… I’m on drugs!”’ from _Almost Famous_ tried to pick you up in a bar? Prove it.” Confident in himself, Sonny cracked his knuckles. “Go on then.”

She pulled _Almost Famous_ from its place in her DVD tower, opened the box, and produced a drink napkin. “You’re a cop. Trace the number.”

He took her offering carefully, observing the obviously drunken text inked onto the napkin -- a phone number and the name “Billy” “If it’s legit?”

“You owe me…” She checked her reflection in the reflection of her black television screen. “All the paperwork to legally turn the yarn store into a yarn store slash wine bar. All i’s dotted and t’s crossed.”

“Done.”

“Then make the call.” With a shit-eating grin on her face, she watched him call in the trace on the number and get the results.

“When do you need the paperwork done?”

“Whenever you have time, gorgeous. No rush.” She tucked the phone number back into the case and grabbed her beer. “I’m caught up on _House of Cards_. Are you?”

“I-I’ve only seen season one.”

“Grab your beer. We’ll start getting you caught up.”


End file.
